Good evening, ‘Dawgs. It’s my pleasure to present you in no particular order 10 Thoughts from yesterday’s tenth win of the season over the Charlotte 49ers.
- LugnutDawg isn’t here because he’s in the training room after logging a few snaps at safety during the 4th quarter. Actually, this is the only one of these that isn’t completely true. In reality he’s in London auditioning to be the next James Bond. But he’s about the only Bulldog who didn’t see the field at some point. After so many close contests early in the season in felt good to get the veterans who have been grinding away on the scout team as well as a few promising freshmen some time on the Sanford Stadium turf.
- Gunner for Heisman. He won’t win it, and probably won’t even get an invite to New York. But if the criteria for your Heisman vote prioritizes performance against elite competition the guy who’s completed 77.5% of his passes for an average of 238 yards per game against top 20 competition, and thrown 11 touchdowns versus only 1 interception in those games, should be near the top of your list.
- How deep is your love (for the Bulldog backfield)? With apologies to the BeeGees, this running back rotation has more smash hits than any pop star. No Chauncey Bowens? No problem. Just plug Bo Walker in for a 3 touchdown performance. The Dawgs will lose Cash Jones and likely Nate Frazier and Josh McCray to the draft after this season. But I think the future of the UGA backfield looks just fine.
- What’s in a name? Speaking of which, has anyone ever been destined to become an SEC tailback more than a guy named “Bo Walker”?
- A rumble of thunder (from down under). It was nice to see Brett Thorson have a little better day after a tough outing against Texas. I suspect Georgia has another game or two where special teams could be key, including one this Friday.
- Little brother is a little down. After starting out with ACC title and playoff aspirations Georgia Tech has played itself back down to earth by losing two out of their last three, eliminating themselves from the ACC title discussion. In those last three games they’ve given up an average of 510.6 yards of offense to the likes of NC State, Boston College, and Pitt. None of whom features the Bulldogs’ stable of offensive weapons.
- ….But not out. As pedestrian as they have been the past few weeks expect the Jackets to give Georgia everything they’ve got. Ruining our season is now, for the thirty-fourth year running, all they have left to play for. And if you think this game isn’t a rivalry, just see what happens if Georgia loses to the Gnats.
- Gunner a goner? Some eyebrows were raised yesterday when Gunner Stockton participated in Senior Day festivities. While the redshirt junior certainly could be in his last season with the program this felt more like a “keeping my options open” decision. If the Bulldogs make a deep title run and Stockton is told that he’s looking at being a first day NFL draft pick he certainly might decide it’s time to leave the Classic City. But I think the odds of his draft stock rising that high at this stage are low. He likely needs another season of sustained performance to really pique the interest of the pros, and Stockton doesn’t seem like the kind of guy who’s going to leave to chase a free agent spot.
- Working toward Atlanta, where the players play. There’s been a lot of discussion among Bulldog fans about whether the Bulldogs should want to play in the SEC Championship Game. Admittedly the Dawgs would need some help to make it (a loss by either Alabama or Texas A&M). The scenarios for who Georgia would play are pretty convoluted, but Kirby Smart recently made it clear that he just wants to be on the field. “I want to win every game that we possibly play,” Kirby said last week. “So what does that mean? Again, my objective is to win every game that we play, so where does that put us? That puts us in that game. So there would be no way I would ever look at not playing in that game. Can’t do that. You’ve gotta look at the opportunity to go play and win a conference championship that has eluded more programs and has been as rare to win, in some cases, as a national championship.” In short, Kirby wants to compete in and win as many football games as you’ll let him. You can’t not love that energy.
- Juusssttt a bit outside. Reason #109 why I just cannot take Texas seriously. To be fair if all Arch’s targets were that big he might hit more of them.
Go Dawgs!!!
